VW Voiding My Extended Intake Manifold Warranty

Tech72 said:

Well, VW confirmed that they will not replace the intake manifold under warranty. VW Canada will not cover the warranty since I'm TD1, and Georgetown VW in Ontario, Canada (dealership that did the APR tune to my car) will not stand behind their work.



I've really had it with VW. Good driving cars and well designed, but just not worth the on-going reliability issues. Intake manifold failure, crank seal oil leak, timing chain tensioner, two wheel bearing failures, loose wastegate rod for turbocharger, sunroof switch problem, rear wiper fluid leak, paint peelng, all occurred under 180K kms. I don't think I'll make it over 200K kms without something (even more) major happening. But the worst part is that my local VW dealership service is horrible and they won't stand behind their product. It's time to move away from this marque.

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The issue with us north of the border is we don't have the Magnusson Munroe act. Where the onus is on the dealer or manufacturers to prove your mod caused the fault. So unfortunately it's pay to play for us. Easier to deny warranty than spend money on an investigation.

Speaking from the OEM side, VW corp knows the car is now TD1. So they won't pay out to the dealer even if the dealer may have wanted to honour the work. Kind of puts them in a tight spot too as now the buck is on them. I'm not sure if the APR Georgetown relationship was approved at a higher level or if it was just at the dealer level and they got poo pooed for doing it by big brother.


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got denied today also, claim "too much boost" from stage 2 caused the arm to blow out, even though it happens all the time on stock cars

Yeah, I got the CEL and P2015 code last June. I've been Stage 1 for over a year now, and just figured the hassle of trying to get this done at the dealer under warranty wouldn't be worth it.

The new manifold is pretty cheap, so I just bought one and installed it myself. And while I was at it, I did the carbon cleaning and replaced some other stuff as well. Even if I'd got the intake warrantied at the dealer, I would have ended up spending more to have them do the other stuff anyway.

It may not be fair, but the extended warranty letter on the intake is pretty clear: if you're not stock, you're SOL. I actually waited on getting tuned, hoping that the manifold would crap out first so I could get it replaced for free, then get tuned after. But, whatever: the tune was worth it and paying a couple hundred for the new intake was no big deal.

Are we surprised, something has to give!

I recently took the Golf in for the rust perforation warranty, with the rust showing and have to wait months for a reply, I wouldn't be surprised if they wait for the warranty to expire before they reply.

The quality of the VW/Audi cars have been questionable for a long while, Dieselgate and the fact VW/Audi has been paying out alot of warranty$ that even latest revision parts can't fix, ...they simply have tightened their belts, and looking for anything to deny warranty claims on the older cars.

What pisses me off is them extending warranty coverage on their new cars,... in order to sell more new cars, while quality has not changed.

My 2 cents.

social media they assssss

Tech72 said:

Well, VW confirmed that they will not replace the intake manifold under warranty. VW Canada will not cover the warranty since I'm TD1, and Georgetown VW in Ontario, Canada (dealership that did the APR tune to my car) will not stand behind their work.

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You know.. .if you have the time.. get on social media and start to let them have it. @ them and everything. Let us on the page so we can keep remarking in on it. Big companies hate social medial platforms where they are called out. I'll jump on.

When the Yorkdale salesperson tried to renege on giving me new tires on a CPO Passat purchase, I hopped on Twitter and brought the house down. Got a DM from someone at the dealership who gave me my tires as promised. It may not work....but at least others across Canada may jump on it and who knows....might work in your favour.

Nothing to lose...maybe you get a partial reimbursement if not full coverage.

SnailPower said:

Let that be a lesson for future peeps that want to get tune's out of dealers. Make sure they sign their soul over to that they WILL cover warranty repairs in the event something occurs. Heck, I would even go as far as bringing up stories like this to them and make sure they aren't going to screw you over.

Aholes got their extra $$$ for providing the tune work up front but then don't want to deal with it later.

BTW, as someone else mentioned, don't the dealers get reimbursed for the work anyway?

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Why APR+ exists, so if you purchase a new VW/Audi, you pay extra money to get a tune (lower output file) AND mechanical coverage for the duration of the manufacturers warranty. If a dealer denies you due to APR's modifications, you can use APR+ to cover the cost of repair. Only downside is you have to take it to an APR+ authorized dealer, if the nearest one is pretty far, you will have to get the car towed over there.

Only responsibility the authorized dealer have is to make sure the tune is flashed properly or back in the day, the ECU is cracked and sealed properly. They are not responsible for providing warranty coverage afterwards if manufacturer denies the repair. When there is warranty work, dealer has to get it approved, otherwise they will NOT get paid. Higher volume dealers might get a pass every so often, to keep everyone happy. Why finding a mod friendly dealer is important, but it is also important not to abuse them, as I have been told they can get audited.

nik said:

The issue with us north of the border is we don't have the Magnusson Munroe act. Where the onus is on the dealer or manufacturers to prove your mod caused the fault. So unfortunately it's pay to play for us. Easier to deny warranty than spend money on an investigation.

Speaking from the OEM side, VW corp knows the car is now TD1. So they won't pay out to the dealer even if the dealer may have wanted to honour the work. Kind of puts them in a tight spot too as now the buck is on them. I'm not sure if the APR Georgetown relationship was approved at a higher level or if it was just at the dealer level and they got poo pooed for doing it by big brother.


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Magnusson act only applies to aftermarket parts that are supposed to be equivalent to OEM, like a direct replacement part. So you cannot get denied for doing your own oil changes, tune-up, etc. It does not cover aftermarket modification parts.

Old thread, but worth reading from a former VW tech: https://www.golfmk6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=87355

Thanks for the link Jaber. That is a very informative thread.

90k miles on my mk6 gti and was getting the same P2015 code. I had my 1st manifold replaced at 40k miles for the same issue under warranty.

I have the Cobb Accessport with aftermarket intake and have been stage 1+ for the entire life of the car. Flashed back to stock before bringing it in and they replaced the intake manifold again under the extended warranty no questions asked.

I don't mean to sound rude, but its not a secret that after-market parts (intakes) and tunes (APR Stage 1) can cause a warranty claim to be denied.



That said, the first rule of car modification is that you always take your modified vehicle to a mod-friendly dealer. If you have to take it to a new dealer, your best bet would be to bring it in as close to stock as possible and get a feel for their leniency towards mods. That way you'll know if they'll turn a blind eye or not.



I'm sorry folks, but you cannot blame a dealership or VW for denying your claim if you yourself haven't done your own due diligence regarding this sort of thing.


@Op, as others have said - hopefully you're not flagged. Your best bet would be to return the car to stock (oem tune and intake) and find a 3rd dealership. Hopefully, they'll honor the intake manifold extended warranty.

SyDiko said:

I don't mean to sound rude, but its not a secret that after-market parts and tunes can cause a warranty claim to be denied. That said, you always take your modified vehicle to a mod-friendly dealer. If you have to take your ride into a new dealer, you had best return it to a close to stock as possible. Especially if you are tuned!



Why on earth would you even risk going to a dealer if they aren't mod-friendly?? I'm sorry folks, but you cannot blame a dealership or BW for denying your claim if you yourself haven't done your own due diligence regarding this sort of thing.

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I don't believe you're sounding rude however per the OP.. he took it back to the VW dealer that did the tune. Pretty sure that most of us would have done the same thing so it's not really a 'due diligence' sort of thing. You expect them to service what they sold/installed.

Pretty general if you ask me.

Blakcard said:

I don't believe you're sounding rude however per the OP.. he took it back to the VW dealer that did the tune. Pretty sure that most of us would have done the same thing so it's not really a 'due diligence' sort of thing. You expect them to service what they sold/installed.

Pretty general if you ask me.

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Not how this works. All the dealer does is flash your ECU or TCU and they are done. Just like any authorized dealer, they are not responsible for what happens afterwards to your vehicle, in regards to the warranty. If there are issues with the tune, they will work with you and the tuner, but you will still most likely have to pay them labor for their time, depending if the issue is with the tune itself, or the way it was flashed.

Blakcard said:

I don't believe you're sounding rude however per the OP.. he took it back to the VW dealer that did the tune. Pretty sure that most of us would have done the same thing so it's not really a 'due diligence' sort of thing. You expect them to service what they sold/installed.

Pretty general if you ask me.

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I definitely understand what you and the OP are saying and one would assume that if a dealer performs tuning services that they are mod-friendly. However, I've never heard good outcomes with dealers as such when folks go back to have warranty work done. In fact, if a warranty states that x,y,z would void it and a dealer performs x, then they are likely suspect to begin with. And to piggyback off Jaber - Lets say the VW dealer bricked your ECU during the flash, I'm pretty sure because it falls outside the scope of your warranty, you'd be SOL with a claim replacement.

SyDiko said:

I definitely understand what you and the OP are saying and one would assume that if a dealer performs tuning services that they are mod-friendly. However, I've never heard good outcomes with dealers as such when folks go back to have warranty work done. In fact, if a warranty states that x,y,z would void it and a dealer performs x, then they are likely suspect to begin with.


Think about it this way, what if said authorized VW dealer bricked your ECU during an APR stage 1 flash. Do you know for sure that your ECU would be covered in such a situation?

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This has happened to a local authorized APR dealer, back when they had to crack open the ECUs and they did honor their warranty. Now, when I say their, I mean the dealer, not VW. So the dealer ate the cost of replacing the ECU.

In the Chicagoland, we have a couple mod friendly dealers, that will do everything they can to get it approved by VW. But if VW asks them for pictures or sends someone out (or the extended warranty company), their hands are tied. I had strut mounts replaced, after lowering my car. I took a shot in the dark and they did it, I didn't argue. I had a radiator replaced (extended warranty company covered it) and had a FMIC installed. My buddy had a K04 GTI that had fuel injectors covered under warranty. Another buddy had the OEM pendulum snap, due to 034 insert + wheelhop, dealer got VW to approve the warranty. YMMV, proceed with caution.

I had a few mods on my 2013 GTI. I now have a 2018 VW AllTrack, I'm getting the feeling dealers are starting to be less forgiving and decided not to play the game. So it is staying stock.

Jaber said:

This has happened to a local authorized APR dealer, back when they had to crack open the ECUs and they did honor their warranty. Now, when I say their, I mean the dealer, not VW. So the dealer ate the cost of replacing the ECU.

In the Chicagoland, we have a couple mod friendly dealers, that will do everything they can to get it approved by VW. But if VW asks them for pictures or sends someone out (or the extended warranty company), their hands are tied. I had strut mounts replaced, after lowering my car. I took a shot in the dark and they did it, I didn't argue. I had a radiator replaced (extended warranty company covered it) and had a FMIC installed. My buddy had a K04 GTI that had fuel injectors covered under warranty. Another buddy had the OEM pendulum snap, due to 034 insert + wheelhop, dealer got VW to approve the warranty. YMMV, proceed with caution.

I had a few mods on my 2013 GTI. I now have a 2018 VW AllTrack, I'm getting the feeling dealers are starting to be less forgiving and decided not to play the game. So it is staying stock.

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Man, I swear you are rolling the dice with dealers as soon as you even hang up an air freshener.


Here in MA, we have a few dealers that are on the unfriendly watch list... Few years ago I put coil-overs on and needed an alignment. I figured it was a good chance to see if my purchase dealer was mod-friendly - I believe they may have once been APR authorized too. Thankfully, I did because it turned out they were not! They wouldn't do the alignment because of the coil-overs. I'm really lucky they didn't flag my car, but goes to show you - can't trust em.


If I can't do the mod myself, I'll take it to my buddy's shop, but if it's anything OEM related, the dealer gets the car as stock as possible. I'll even slap on the good ol' Detroits lol.